Over the past couple of years, we’ve learnt a lot from the conferences we’ve supported. We wanted to share this knowledge with you, so we’ve developed an infographic containing some interesting statistics. We’ve also added some of the best tips from our mentors. Please feel free to share!

Recently, we interviewed Adrian Segar, author of Conferences That Work, about participant driven conferences. In the first part of this interview, Adrian gave us insight into where the idea for the book came from and his thoughts on the effects of technology on participant driven events. In part 2, we get advice on how these…

Attending your first conference as a PhD student can be daunting for anyone. Dr. Inger Mewburn, Director of research training at the Australian National University and editor of The Thesis Whisperer, a blog newspaper dedicated to the topic of doing your thesis, has kindly shared some advice on how to approach your first research conference. The Thesis…

The peer review process plays an essential role in almost every academic conference. We’ve spoken about the peer review process on numerous occasions on our blog, but we wanted to get the opinion of someone who reviews abstracts on a regular basis. Scott Eacott has kindly given us insight on his thought about peer review….

Research conferences are not just about the presentations given, they’re about the whole event experience. Technology can play an integral part in heightening this experience. We recently spoke to J. Damany Daniel, the Chief Imaginator at The Event Nerd, who is a self confessed technology nerd. In 2012, the Special Events Magazine recognised his prowess in…

Peer review is the evaluation of an abstract or paper by work by other people with a competence on the topic in the same field of research. It is usually either single-blind reviewed, double-blind reviewed or open reviewed. Every reviewer commits to provide timely and detailed feedback for authors. The main goal of peer reviewing is to increase the…

When it comes to academic conferences, the general consensus is they are more reluctant to change compared to the general events industry. Some practices have been in place for decades. While technology is not necessarily a new phenomenon, the conference industry has not been known for embracing a lot of change. The question is, is…

Authors have spent endless hours solving problems, writing and rewriting their papers. The next step is getting their content reviewed in a conference setting. After all the arduous hours it took to put their paper together, the last thing they need is a long process of abstract submission or a mediocre reviewing standard. After the…

Trying to get funding for a trip to a conference is not easy, especially if you’re an early career researcher. We wondered what conference committees could do to ease the financial burden on these researchers. Tseen Khoo (TLK) and Jonathan O’Donnell (JOD), who form the gestalt entity, the Research Whisperer, have kindly helped to shed some light…